Three-and-a-half years ago, much of the St. Peter’s Church in the Great Valley property was a tangled mess of invasive vines and trees. Then came the Bad Boys for Jesus, whose goal since has been to turn the 16 acres of historic countryside into one of the more majestic church grounds around.

“What they’ve done has allowed the whole campus to be opened up,” said the Rev. Anne Bridgers, whose church features a worship building that dates back to 1744. “Now we can see how blessed we are to have all of this space. Before, you just couldn’t see it, and it would confuse the visitors. It really has transformed.”

Bridgers left Jacksonville, Fla. in 2008 to take over the St. Peter’s ministry. Her husband, Dixon, was an attorney in Florida, and thought he’d find a job in the field after the move. Following the economic crash that year, however, job opportunities dried up, and in the spring of 2009, Dixon set his sights on improving the mammoth church grounds, all by himself.

“Whatever game-plan I had wasn’t working, so I’d just come out and start messing around,” said Dixon, whose manual labor experience was virtually nonexistent. “I remember standing there with a handsaw and a pair of loppers, and I prayed, ‘Lord, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m asking for help.’ What came back to me was, ‘You have everything you need.’”

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Dixon started out by cutting into the massive overgrowth of vines. Working several times a week, he realized he wasn’t getting very far. Then, others took notice, and joined the effort.

“First we had two guys, Bob Lytle and Tom Stewart, who came along,” Dixon said. “But the key to everything was when Rusty Nash showed up.”

Nash, who grew up on a farm in Tennessee, brought a whole new level of talent to the team.

“He’s one of those guys that can just do anything,” Dixon said. “There isn’t anything you can mention that he hasn’t done before.

“What’s amazing here is how people with different gifts have shown up at the right time.”

At some point in the early days, the collective was officially named the Bad Boys for Jesus. The name came from a similar assemblage of volunteers that the Bridgers saw in Florida. Now, neither can decide who applied the title.

“She tells me I did it, and I tell her she did it,” Dixon said. “Now we just can’t remember.”

As more volunteers joined the group, donations came in, and a once-empty workshop on the property was filled with equipment. When a tractor was donated by a parishioner, work capacity increased greatly.

It took the Bad Boys 18 months to clear the area near The Barn, an unusual and recently built worship building that had been concealed by the overgrowth.

“I have the utmost respect for grapevines and Asian honeysuckle vines,” Dixon said. “They can pull a tree down if you give them enough time. It’s unbelievable.”

The Bad Boys (and Broads, as some women have joined the group) include a wide range of characters. One is Lloyd Reynolds, whose work on a discounted zero-turn mower saves the church in upwards of $10,000 during warm-weather months.

“This guy’s 72 years old and has had three heart-attacks,” Dixon said. “He should be dead, but he’s out here because he loves mowing.”

Then there’s Tom Rice, a pharmaceutical packaging industry veteran who will retire on Dec. 28.

“At midnight I will retire from that job and become a full-time Bad Boy,” Rice said. “My wife doesn’t like the sound of that, but she’ll have to learn to live with it.”

Along with a love of the church and its property, the Bad Boys share an affinity for something else – beer. Work days typically end with a small dorm-style refrigerator being drained of its Yuengling.

“Sometimes we don’t wait until the end of the workday,” Dixon said.

Bridgers called the Bad Boys’ work “Herculean,” and said they clearly get satisfaction from non-monetary compensation.